China ducks questions about Al-Jazeera expulsion

This
was not an auspicious reaction to the news that Al-Jazeera
English has closed its Beijing bureau after being refused journalist visas.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Hong Lei's responses at today's press
conference did not improve from there, according to a partial transcript
published by Voice of America. His
explanations for the ministry's refusal to renew credentials for the channel's
Beijing correspondent Melissa Chan were a mixture of denial and obfuscation. (Al-Jazeera's
Arabic-language bureau continues to operate with several accredited
journalists, according to The Associated
Press.)

The
word of the day was "relevant." "I have just answered relevant questions," Hong
says plaintively at the start of the transcript. "The Chinese government will follow strictly relevant regulations
in dealing with foreign journalists." Then, "With regard to relevant issue
I think relevant media and journalists are clear about that." It was a
convenient way to avoid being relevant himself: In the course of nine questions,
he used the word 11 times, and we are still none the wiser about why Chan and
her news outlet were blacklisted.

Flat
denials from the ministry
are nothing new. But it is deeply discouraging to hear them over the kind of
expulsion not seen in China since the 20th century. The Chinese
government issued regulations allowing
foreign journalists to work freely before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. CPJ registered
concern about the growing pressure on sources and
assistants
working for them, but the journalists themselves at least had something on
paper that justified their right to report.

Increasingly,
that freedom, too, has been dialed back, with frequent accounts of foreign reporters
attacked and detained on the job. In
our alert last night, we argued
that much of the interference they face is couched in terms of the very
regulations meant to protect them. The rules allow them to interview any
consenting subject, yet journalists reporting on human rights activists like
Chen Guangcheng are now accused of reporting
"illegally" that he is staying at Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital, because they did
not get prior consent. Never mind that Chen has been physically and illegally isolated from the press
for years--his consent in that case was a moot point.

So
where should the press go for permission? What do they do to make sure they are
not breaking any laws? How can other news outlets avoid being expelled in
future? A journalist posed a similar question to the Foreign Ministry today, so
we'll leave the last word for Hong Lei.

Q: Where can we see those regulations, because we are having some problem in
finding which law and regulation was broken.

Hong Lei: I think [I] have
answered the relevant question.

Madeline Earp is senior researcher for CPJ’s Asia Program. She has studied Mandarin in China and Taiwan, and graduated with a master’s in East Asian studies from Harvard. Follow her on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.